Staying Financially Positive as a Teacher: Emotionally…and Literally

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Whether you’re a first-year teacher barely paying your rent or a veteran educator with a relatively comfortable salary – or anywhere in between or throughout – being in the teaching profession can, at times, be financially draining. Often, you are responsible for most of your expenses – like new pencils and erasers for your classroom, or that wildly expensive pizza party that you thought would be great reward for your kids. With all of that spending, what can a teacher do to stay financially positive, both emotionally and in the bank? 

1. Track what you spend

The greatest and most effective piece of financial advice I’ve received is simple: track what you spend. Sure, you can check out your credit card statement and see that you spent $46.09 on gas and $12.99 on sparkly stickers at Staples yesterday, but simply checking your statements isn’t enough. If you’re like most Americans, you’ve got multiple forms of payment – your Visa, your Mastercard, your bankcard, money that your grandmother gave you for Christmas last year – and it’s difficult to consistently track your expenses. Don’t rely on your statements – use a spreadsheet to set a budget and track your expenses in general categories (i.e., groceries, school supplies, health care, personal, etc.), and try to stick to your limit. Tracking your finances can be incredibly effective – so effective that one family literally saved THOUSANDS of dollars by setting and sticking (as best at they could) to their budget. (You can check out nerd-dreamworthy Google doc  via one of my favorite blogs, The Penny Hoarder, here). I tried out their spreadsheet this month. Despite it being somewhat cumbersome to consistently ask for, store and then enter information from receipts, it has worked! Once entering data becomes routinized, it’s not so bad. I’ve become so much more aware of what I’m spending and where (eek – Quizno’s) and places I could easily save money. Even the act of asking for a receipt and KNOWING that I’m accountable for tracking it has stopped me from purchasing things I don’t really need, like $4.99 issue of Star Magazine that I saw eyeing me at RiteAid last night.

2. Identify and target ways to save

Your budget doesn’t have to be the same each month. You might know that you need to buy that boatload of school supplies in August so, using your tracker, you can identify areas in which you’ve overspent in previous months and can purposefully cut back in. (A big one that I didn’t realize I had power over until recently? My student loan budget! See if you qualify for student loan forgiveness by visiting the Federal Student Aid website and checking the eligibility requirements).

3.  …and use tools to make it easier for yourself

It’s quite easy to say, “well, just save your money!” or “Budget better!” Most people aim to stick to a budget, but then life happens. Your car breaks down, or you go out for a girl’s night in the city and have too much fun. It happens, whether it should or not. There are, however, tools and strategies that make saving money a lot easier. During 2015, I’ve test-driven as many different savings applications as I could. Ultimately, while some are easier to use and more effective than others, I’ve saved a ton of money using all of them.

  • Get cashback for the things that you typically buy. It’s so easy it hurts. I downloaded two available “cashback” apps – Ibotta and Checkout 51 – that deliver rebates on common items you buy. Both work similarly. Say you’re going to the grocery store. Open the app and check out the grocery items that have available rebates that week (it could be anything from fruits/vegetables to a six-pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade). Buy the item, then take a photograph of the receipt and scan the barcode of the item you’ve purchased (if it has one) and – voila! – you get a rebate. I’ve had each app since January 1st of this year, and I’ve earned $63.90 back from Ibotta and $10.50 from Checkout 51. Ibotta tends to have more items available (Ibotta lists items by store, and includes shops other than grocery, including many popular clothing chains, office supply places and hardware stores). However, there have been times when I’ve purchased a common item (let’s say bananas) and have gotten a rebate from Ibotta AND Checkout 51. Makes me feel like a genius. If these apps don’t appeal to you, there are tons of others out there: I got an invitation to join BerryCart, an app that provides rebates for organic grocery store purchases recently. I’ve also checked out Ebates, which gives rebates on many online purchases.
  • Invest! Beyond my 403b and my funds in the Teacher Retirement Board, I have not always been the savviest investor. This year, in my journey toward saving, I pushed myself to invest money. My first adventure: penny stocks! Trading penny stocks is a game full of risk (and ideally, reward). I opened a free account at ETrade, and did research (albeit, rather cursory research, as I later found out), chose an affordable penny stock and invested a small amount of money. The penny stock that I chose first didn’t do well, but I have not sold my shares yet – hoping that the price of each share will go back up, perhaps. Tip: invest enough to offset the fee of investing itself – usually about $9.99 per trade. A safer bet? Apps like Acorn sync with your bank account and allow you to round up purchases you’ve already completed, and invest the spare change in stocks and mutual funds. For example, if you buy a soda at the store for $2.07, you can elect to round up the price by 93 cents to make it an even $3, and invest the round up. Plus, it’s free (there aren’t fees for investing). I’ve made a total of $26 investing through Acorn.

4. Oh, and…make more money

Yes! It’s actually possible…and it’s possible (for the most part!) from the comfort of your own couch. A few quick ways to make a few extra bucks while not deviating too much from your busy teacher (or summer) schedule:

  • Take surveys: It’s hard to believe, but you can make money just for sharing your opinion online! Simply sign up with a survey company (some are listed below – be sure to find ones that are free to join), and take surveys that become available to you. I’ve made a habit of taking surveys at night, while watching TV. Over the course of the past few months, I’ve made a total of $57 from taking surveys, as well as some free products. A few of my favorite sites: SendEarnings, InboxDollars, Jobs2Shop and MySurvey.
  • Make money for being healthy: I wrote about one of my favorite apps, Pact, in a previous blog post called Taking Care of You. The application, which you can download easily onto most smartphones, allows you to set personal nutrition and fitness goals. When you meet your goal each week, you are rewarded financially. For example: you set a goal to eat 15 servings of fruits and vegetables, go to the gym 3 times and keep a diary of your food intake 5 times and you do it. You are given a small financial bonus for each of the tasks you’ve completed (usually between 15 and 30 cents per task). The downside – if you don’t meet your goal, you owe Pact a pre-determined amount of money. Like the time I went to Cape Cod and forgot about Pact and owed them $20 for the 4 times I DIDN’T go to the gym that week. Eek. Since downloading the app in January 2015, I’ve netted an extra $67.
  • Mystery shop: Also known as my new favorite thing ever! I read about the perks of mystery shopping on a Penny Hoarder blog, and immediately signed up with several mystery shopping services (like Sinclair Customer Metrics, Sassie Shops and BestMark). This summer, with my time off, I’ve done a handful of mystery shopping experiences, usually making between $10 and $25 per shop. While I will not break the mystery shopping code of revealing where I’ve visited, I can say that I’ve gone into popular clothing and food chains, interacted with customer service associates and surveyed the store. After each visit, I have been required to complete a short survey rating the overall experience (including the knowledge and friendliness of staff members, the cleanliness of the store and the speed of service). After that – just sit back and wait for your check in the mail! It’s been fun and I’m not going to lie – I’ve felt like a secret agent, sneaking into stores undercover. What’s not to love?

I’ve chosen to take the money I’ve made on the “side” and put it into a separate bank account, so I can feel financially positive. After all, feeling GOOD about your finances is one of the most important factors in growing your money.

Teachers, what do you do to make extra money?

“Regular” versus “Special”: As a Teacher, Is There a Difference?

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Regular education teacher vs. special education teacher: What’s the difference?

Perhaps there doesn’t really have to be one.

That sounds radical, and I’m sure some would debate me – but fundamentally the job of a regular education teacher and a special educator are the same: to teach, support, love and enrich children. In a co-teaching relationship, conflict can arise when there is too concrete of a line drawn between the two roles.

For the past two years, I co-taught in an inclusive second grade classroom in New Haven, Connecticut. The first year, there were five students with IEPs, and 19 without. The second year of co-teaching brought me a class of 23, but no students with special needs. There were 4 students who were going through (or about to go through) the PPT process to determine whether they required special services, but no students started the year with a diagnosis of a disability.

To be honest, this actually scared me. I would be, at least functionally, a regular education teacher. The concept of teaching a “regular” class made me feel like I would be living a lie – I didn’t go to school to become a regular education teacher! What if I failed teaching the general education curriculum to the students, and then set them back?

On the first day of school, I met my new class. Many of the students had been selected to be in the co-taught classroom based on their academic and behavioral needs. Despite not coming with a “label”, many of these students had struggled in the past, and needed extra support. Beyond the kids who came with already identified issues, I realized that (just like last year) I had a class of diverse personalities, each different from one another, each with different strengths and different weaknesses. Even though I was signed up as the special education teacher, the kids didn’t know my title.  That’s when I realized the flaw in my thinking. I didn’t have to identify as a special education teacher or a “regular” classroom teacher – I was, to my kids, simply: the teacher.  

As the year progressed, some students were determined to be eligible for special education services and, although they were not aware of my specialized role in their lives, I became the special education teacher – providing service hours, and delivering modifications and accommodations. But, I also kept teaching math to the whole group, and pulling a mixed group of students with and without disabilities for extra writing practice. My co-teaching partner also took on a role of pulling the students with IEPs into small groups while I taught the whole group. To the kids, nothing changed – as one of our most cheerful boys wrote in a note to me: “You and Ms. M are the bestest second grade teachers I have ever had in my life.” It’s hard not to appreciate the hyperbolic love.

I think too often people become consumed with titles. When I became a special education teacher, I co-taught with a teacher who took her role as a regular education teacher quite literally. We worked together in a “collaborative” classroom, but she asked that I be solely responsible for dealing with the behavior plans and accommodations for the six children with IEPs (many of whom had multiple disabilities), so that she could “just do regular ed stuff”. I would not say that the kids suffered necessarily, but I definitely held an attitude of frustration that only hindered what we could’ve done together as a team. I remember feeling embittered, because she refused to accommodate who I perceived as “my” students. Looking back, both of us held attitudes that stopped us from being even better teachers. When you live your life defined by a title or a perceived role, you cannot grow. Of course, teachers should play to their strengths – a teacher who has been trained in how to teach algebra should focus on the content, and if she has a partner who is a special education teacher, maybe that teacher should focus on modifying classroom activities for students who need it. However, what each of you do in a co-teaching relationship should depend solely on what the kids need, and what you can do. Just because you’re a special educator working with an algebra expert does not mean that you only work with students with IEPs or kids who are struggling – and that you can’t pull an advanced group for extended practice! True growth as an educator happens when you refuse to allow your title to define you. 

Taking Care of YOU

/ laurengemske / 2 Comments

Inherit in being a special education teacher is the desire to care for others – to make sure that your students, many of whom are affected daily by disability, are learning, are happy and are cared for. But, what about you?

As I signed the contract for my first teaching job, I promised myself that I would work hard everyday, give teaching my all AND take care of myself. I said, “Lauren, you’re going to keep running, eat healthy food and sleep well…EVEN when you’re really busy!” My self-care journey between that point has vacillated between “incredibly healthy” and “I don’t have a lot of time, so I’m going to eat an Ellio’s pizza for dinner, take NyQuil because I have a pounding headache and, oh no, I can’t stop thinking about Student X because they had such a difficult day, and now I’m going to have to wake up extra early to write my lesson plan for the day because I don’t like the one I already wrote…” You get the picture!

So how do you take care of yourself in such an emotionally demanding position? 

Likely, you’re a special education teacher because you care about children. That’s not going to change. However, you can make a commitment to yourself to take care of your mind, your body and your spirit.

Take care of your mind

Have you ever had a moment when you’ve realized that your memory doesn’t feel as intact as it used to be? Have you felt that sinking feeling when you’re writing a lesson plan, and all of sudden, you can’t quite form the sentence that feels like it’s on the tip of your tongue? When your mind is overloaded with students, IEPs, lesson plans, upcoming meetings, conversations you need to have with your colleagues, observations and more, it can be difficult to practice activities that keep your mind strong and alert. For me, choosing an activity to do daily to keep my mind healthy was not too hard – I love brain games like the ones on Lumosity, and playing word games with my friends à la apps like Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends. I also love, love, LOVE reading. However, when you’re stressed out by the daily goings on of being a special education teacher, it’s easy to forgo the things you love that keep your mind healthy. So, I follow these 2 steps:

1. Go to a special spot (for me, it’s my loft – my family doesn’t go up there, it has beautiful, large windows, and I have it decorated just the way I like it).

2. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Think: you can spend 10 minutes easily on Facebook. Dedicate those 10 minutes to you, and to your mind! Don’t take calls. Ask your partner to watch the kids. Do whatever it takes to just be alone, and engage in an activity that you love that keeps your mind healthy. I usually add this time to my “spiritual time” as well (read below).

In addition to carving out some special time, make your brain a priority. For more ways to keep your mind strong, check out Medical Daily’s article on other habits that keep your brain in shape.

Take care of your body

Taking care of your body is one of the most important things you can do. The healthier you are, the more energy you will have to support your students and be active in the classroom. Finding it difficult to maintain an exercise or healthy-eating routine? Consider using an app!

Pact, a free healthy-living app, rewards users for setting and meeting health, fitness and lifestyle goals. Choose the number of times that you would like to commit to going to the gym or running/walking 10,000 steps, the number of healthy vegetables and fruits you’d like to eat, and the number of food logs you’d like to keep on partner applications, and set an amount of money that will keep you accountable. Fail to meet the goals, and pay up; meet the goal and earn a small cash reward! Since beginning use of the app in December 2014, I’ve challenged myself to going to the gym/using my Jawbone Fitness tracker to meet my 10,000 step goal at least 4 times per week. I’ve also challenged myself to keep at least 5 food logs using My Fitness Pal, which keeps me on top of what kind of foods I’m ingesting and snacking on during the day. Additionally, I set a goal to eat at least 15 fruits and veggies per week (which Pact tracks via photographs you send in and Pact members vote as actual fruits and veggies – so that means you can’t snap a pic of your McD’s fries and have it count!). Pact determines if you’ve met your goal on Sundays – so there certainly have been a few manic weekends when I’ve gone for long runs just to meet my target, or binge-ate strawberries and blueberries from my fridge – but it’s definitely worth it. I’ve earned more money than I’ve had to pay and (most importantly) helped redevelop some of the healthy-living routines that I lost in the daily stress of being a teacher.

My progress toward meeting my exercise and healthy eating goals on Pact App.

My progress toward meeting my exercise and healthy eating goals on Pact App.

Take care of your spirit

I’m not here to tell people to join a church, go to yoga or totally transform their life to meet some spiritual quota – what you consider spiritual is unique, and up to you. My challenge is to find something that genuinely makes you feel GOOD, and commit to practicing it for at least 15 minutes per day. For me, my spiritual “awakening” came after reading May Cause Miracles by proclaimed “Spirit Junkie” Gabrielle Bernstein. The book, which focuses on the thinking patterns that we can employ to make radical shifts in our happiness, asks readers to take a 40-day journey toward self-love and acceptance. I followed the steps, and literally emerged a happier person. Since reading the book, I’ve committed to spending (at a minimum) 15 minutes per day doing something that makes me feel positive, whether it is meditating, stretching, reading a self-help book, praying or talking to a friend who gives me positive energy. It can be anything – but I don’t allow myself to miss this time. There have been days when I’ve come home with tears in my throat, my mind locked on a student who is struggling deeply, or a difficult conversation I had with a colleague. Those days, it is hard to switch mindsets and do something positive for myself. However, I can attest – the more that I engage in the activities and thinking that keeps my spirit healthy, the happier I am and the more I have to give to my students and co-workers.

So, remember: Keep your mind strong, and sharp. Choose and commit to physically healthy activities – and hold yourself accountable. And, arguably most importantly, keep your spirit strong.

Teachers, I’d love to know – what do you do to keep your mind, body and spirit healthy? Share below!

Habits of an Effective Co-Teacher

/ laurengemske / Leave a comment

Whoever said it first is right – co-teaching is like a marriage. I remember hearing that in grad school, when I was studying to be a special educator. My professor was lecturing on different structures of co-teaching and how to support students with special needs effectively with two teachers in the room. He started to discuss the importance of having a strong and open relationship with your teaching partner. At that point, I had already completed my first round of student teaching, in both general and special education settings, and I found that I couldn’t quite relate to what my professor was saying.

In my then limited experience, I had developed a few strong relationships with the educators with whom I was working with, but nothing felt like a marriage – it felt more like I was the little, annoying sister to the “big kids”, asking them questions, observing them, dying to be like them. There was that – and there was my relationship with the 9th grade English teacher that I was set up to co-teach 3rd period 9th Grade Literature with. What we had didn’t feel like a mutual relationship to me – the teacher told me on more than one occasion how disappointed she was in me, and how she expected that because I was a college student, I would have a lot more ideas and strategies to impart on her and her classroom. She once sat me down and said, “Lauren, I don’t want you to have the misconception that you’re doing well.” In my first 2 weeks of being a student teacher, I felt crushed. I walked out in tears (if I’m going to be honest, perhaps I was hyperventilating). Our relationship was not equal, and I resorted to avoiding her whenever I could.

Fast forward almost a decade, and just now am I starting to truly get it. I’ve worked as a co-teacher in a variety of settings, with a variety of personalities, and some great things have happened. A special education and general education co-teaching partnership is like a marriage – but it’s up to the partners whether it’s a strong marriage, or one headed to the divorce courts.

Even though my professor said it, here’s what I wish I knew and truly believed when I started my career as a special education teacher:

1. Play your strengths (and encourage your partner’s strengths!). Humans are humans. We are each different. We each have strengths, and we each have weaknesses. One teacher might be a great classroom manager, but struggle with organization. Another teacher might be incredibly organized, but struggle when it comes to working with kids on the autism spectrum. All of this is okay and manageable if both teachers support each other. In my best co-teaching relationship, we were hyper-aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Her strengths were in organization, management and clarity – she made sure that every paper was in the right place, easy to find, and spoke with incredible lucidity – so clear, that children were never confused by what she was saying. One of my strengths was in communicating with children who struggled with behavior, particularly with children with autism spectrum disorders. Because she and I communicated so well, we were almost always able to play each other’s strengths when difficult classroom situations arose. For example, when she saw me start to get too wordy with a direction, she’d jump in and restate it clearly. If a child began to throw a tantrum during one of our lessons, I was always able to wordlessly sneak away, trusting that she’d continue the lesson, and help redirect the student. Our relationship was so strong that we were able to switch between the roles of general education and special education teacher not only daily, but within a lesson. The kids legitimately were unable to tell who was the general education teacher and who was there for special education.

2. If something feels strange, name it. But, don’t assume that you know why your partner is acting a certain way, and don’t argue. When I started out as as a special education teacher in a sixth-grade position, I was assigned as a co-teacher in a science classroom with a teacher who had been at the school for close to two decades. On our first day of teaching together, she directed me in a firm voice to walk Jay, a sixth-grader with autism, away from the classroom because “it is unacceptable to disrupt a classroom”. Looking back and knowing what I know now – I would have talked to her that day, stated what happened and how it made me feel, and then listened to her. How was she feeling?  What I ACTUALLY did, however, was bottle it up and start to resent her. Every time she did something like that again, it only validated the story I created in my head for her. It was unhealthy, and didn’t help our children. On the contrary, if you refuse to assume that you know what someone is thinking, you might find yourself surprised by the reason. I had another conversation with a teacher in another position a few years later, regarding how we were working with one of our children with autism who was on a behavior intervention plan. We had gotten into an email conversation about how we each disagreed with what the other was doing. I ended up pulling her aside, and had a conversation. Turns out, she was under pressure from her administrator and was feeling stressed by the demands of the plan – something I had never considered when developing the plan with her! To this day, she and I are friends, and often come together to brainstorm ways to help make behavior plans manageable for teachers at our school. Long story, short: if something is strange, say it! It can be hard to do that, but if you don’t, you risk creating a negative story that will hurt your relationship and impact how you work together with students.

3. Be yourself. Trust yourself. I think that the biggest mistake that I’ve made in my years as a co-teacher were the times in which I wasn’t truly myself. In the name of avoiding conflict with a co-teacher, there were times when I tried to be someone I wasn’t – and, it always (ALWAYS) hurt me in the long-run. There was one time, several years ago, when I was working with a teacher in a co-taught math classroom. She wanted the majority of the block to be silent. If children did not meet that expectation, they would be asked to the leave the classroom. While I understood the expectation for silence, I struggled with the consequence – invariably, the same students would be asked to leave, day after day, and it seemed to be creating a culture of defiance and disrespect. It, however, ended up being something we didn’t talk about…which allowed each of us to develop stories in our heads about each other. Clearly, the consequence she was giving was something that she felt was right, but was something I didn’t agree with. Could we have discussed this? Yes. Could we have come up with a compromise and have felt better about it? Yes. But we didn’t. Be true to yourself and fight for what you believe is right – but, also, be willing to allow others to be true to themselves and try to understand their reasons for doing things.

4. Set expectations, and hold each other accountable. When I think about what made my best co-teaching relationship so strong, I think about how well we communicate and hold each other accountable. What helped the most was before the first day of school, we sat down and “interviewed” each other. We completed an interview, asking each other questions in a number of categories like personality, habits and preferences, special education, and so on. When we set up our classroom, we already KNEW what to expect from one other, which helped us when we met our students and challenges began to arise.

The biggest message: own your role, be flexible and care for your co-teacher! The more that you are willing to hear your co-teacher’s thoughts and ideas, and the more that you are truly willing to work together and communicate for the good of your students, the better the relationship will be.

Getting to Know Your Co-Teacher: The First Interview

/ laurengemske / 1 Comment

In my post on developing a strong co-teaching relationship, I wrote about doing a co-teacher “pre-interview” as an activity to get to know your new “roommate”. Understanding your co-teacher and openly identifying each other’s strengths and weaknesses is imperative in building a strong partnership. My current co-teacher and I sat down when we first met and completed an interview together over dinner and drinks. Below is an example of a set of questions that you can use with your partner when you first meet – you can even complete an interview after knowing each other for years…it’s still fun!

Directions: Sit down with your co-teacher, preferably in a relaxing environment (perhaps with an adult beverage?). Answer the questions in writing yourself (as honestly as you can), as your partner answers the questions. Then, share them aloud- no particular order is necessary. It’s guaranteed to be a fun and informative conversation! Don’t be scared to let the conversation go in different directions based on answers to questions.

GENERAL: 

  1. How long have you taught for? What roles have you had?
  2. What made you want to become a teacher?
  3. What are your strengths as a teacher?
  4. Areas of growth?

HABITS AND PREFERENCES

  1.  Are you a morning person or a night owl?
  2. Do you prefer to stay at work until your tasks are done, or do you like to work at home?
  3. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10: How organized are you?
  4. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10: How comfortable are you with sharing your space with others?
  5. What is your system for maintaining student work and records?

PERSONALITY

  1. When you’re really stressed out, what is your “go-to”?
  2. Would you call yourself a Type A or a Type B person? Explain.
  3. Describe your typical evening.
  4. Describe your typical weekend.

BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT

  1. Do you have a preferred whole-group behavior management system?
  2. Imagine that a child (without special needs) is misbehaving during a whole-group lesson. She calls out repeatedly, despite attempts at correction. What consequence would you give her? Why?

SPECIAL EDUCATION

  1. How comfortable are you with working with children with special needs? What experiences have you had that inform your comfort level?
  2. Imagine that you have a child with autism who self-talks and is on a plan to reduce the behavior. Another student in the classroom makes a not-so-nice joke about the student. How do you address it?
  3. Imagine that you have a child on a behavior intervention plan. The short summary: the child receives social skills instruction daily, and is on a reinforcement system to decrease the behavior of walking out of the classroom. The child earns 5 minutes of time on his tablet for every 30 minutes he stays in the room. A regular education student who sometimes struggles with following directions asks if he can be on the same plan. What do you say?